Home Again

Posted on May 3, 2011 by Cora

This is just a quick post to let you know that I got home late yesterday evening.

We had to fly via Paris Charles de Gaulle, an airport I really don’t like and try to avoid whenever possible. And yesterday’s stopover once again reminded me why. Because first, the plane from Dublin took an entire circuit around the airport to reach its parking position, then the airfield bus took another circuit around the entire airport to dump us at a terminal, whereupon we had to walk through the entire terminal to catch another airport bus outside which drove around the entire airport yet again to take us to another terminal. We also had to pass through two security checks during that time. And when our flight was finally ready to take off, it circled the entire bloody airport yet again. As inefficient design goes, this one has to be the kicker. And we didn’t even have to go out to Terminal 1, which is practically an airport to itself.

As airports go, Charles de Gaulle is pretty damn ugly as well. There’s a lot of construction work going on and they’re obviously trying, but the ghost of Le Corbusier is still wafting even through the new bits. They’re way too much in love with concrete there. And dressing up concrete with cheerful carpets doesn’t make it any less concrete. Sometimes I think that the architects have forgotten that the airport is only named after Charles de Gaulle and that they weren’t supposed to build its tomb.

On the plus side, I saw an Airbus A380 docked at one of the terminals, which is still a pretty uncommon sight. I also saw one of the surviving Air France Concordes on display.

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Random Observations about Doctor Who and Downton Abbey

Posted on May 2, 2011 by Cora

Great. I’m out of the loop for a few days and the world goes crazy. Now Osama Bin Laden has been killed by US Navy Seals. Very unexpected news which will hopefully provide a boost for Barack Obama.

Back to things of less worldshattering relevance, like I mentioned my roommate and I ended up watching the second episode of the current series of Doctor Who at the hotel on Saturday. And since I had gotten the start time mixed up, we also ended up watching approx. forty minutes of a repeat of Downton Abbey. Continue reading →

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A few random observations about Ireland

Posted on May 2, 2011 by Cora

I decided to use my 10 Euros for 24 hours internet access to do some websurfing and pretty much the first thing I see is that Joanna Russ has died aged 74. I’m very shocked, because like many others I admired her writing, both fiction and non-fiction, enormously. If I’d have to name a favourite, I’d probably go with How to Suppress Women’s Writing, which is a real eye-opener. If I ever find myself in the position to teach a women’s writing or gender and writing class, that book will go on the reading list.

And now for some random observations about Ireland. More detailed reports will follow, once I’m back home:

  • Every official sign as well as many memorial plaques are bilingual in English and Irish. There also is one TV channel entirely in Irish and occasional Irish programming on another. However, posters and non-official signage is usually in English only. I saw one academic focused bookstore with a section of books in Irish, but the more commercial bookshops were almost entirely in English.
  • I really can’t make heads or tails of Irish, even less so than Welsh. At least I have some vague idea how to pronounce Welsh. I cannot pronounce Irish at all.
  • There are almost more hairdressers in Dublin than there are pubs. In some areas, it seems as if every second shop is a hairdresser.
  • Irish highstreets looks very much like British highstreets. You have pretty much the same stores and brands, e.g. Boots, Tesco, Topshop, Dorothy Perkins, Marks and Spencer’s, Debenham’s, Argos, all the old standbys. Only Primark is called Penney here and the ubiquitous greeting card shops are missing.
  • Oddly enough, the largely defunct German supermarket chain Spar is very much alive and kicking here. They even have the same logo.
  • Clothing prices are similar to British prices and more expensive than German prices. Only that it’s even more notable here than in the UK, because Ireland is an Euro country.
  • Families are definitely bigger. We saw a whole lot of visibly pregnant women, babies in strollers and older children. Very often, the mothers look extremely young, too. Looks like the contraception ban is having an effect. Though I did see condoms for sale at Boots.
  • People here are just as mad about the royal wedding as elsewhere.
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Another short update from Dublin

Posted on May 1, 2011 by Cora

I’m still enjoying myself very much here in Dublin. The weather has been mild and sunny all the time, only yesterday morning there was a bit of rain, and that was while we were having breakfast, so it wasn’t much of a problem.

Visited some beautiful parks, lovely medieval churches, a stunning historical cemetery, Dublin Castle, etc… I also bought some books at a bookstore founded in 1761 and mentioned in Ulysses. Expect photos, when I’m back home.

Yesterday, I chanced to watch the latest episode of Doctor Who as well as a repeat of Downton Abbey on TV at the hotel and they were both crap. Even worse than I expected, to be honest. And that’s not just my opinion. My roommate agreed as well.

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Brief Update from Ireland

Posted on April 29, 2011 by Cora

Just a brief post to let you know that I arrived safely in Dublin yesterday. The weather is nice and sunny, much better than at the Royal Wedding apparently.

Unfortunately, Wi-Fi is only available in the hotel lobby. What is more, my aging cellphone had to take just this opportunity to give up the ghost. At any rate, it has no reception anywhere. And since my carrier, T-Mobile, doesn’t operate in Ireland, nobody can find out what’s wrong either. As a result, I spent significant time yesterday trying to locate a pay phone (which have gotten really rare these days) to phone home.

I’m going to head out now. Perhaps I’ll post another update tomorrow and photos when I get home.

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Up and Away

Posted on April 28, 2011 by Cora

From tomorrow on, I will be in Ireland until Tuesday, May 2nd.

I’ll take my netbook along and will try to make the occasional post. Nonetheless, blogging will be light, since I don’t yet know how the Wi-Fi connectivity is and I really don’t want to spend my holidays hanging around in a coffeeshop with my netbook.

Expect more details about my trip as well as photos, when I get back. You can also expect my first e-book to go live sometime in May. I had actually planned to get everything done over the long Easter weekend, but life intervened. Finally, I also feel the stirrings of a new longer project. Ah, good times.

In the meantime, I leave you with some links:

It’s definitely awards season. This weekend, the BSFA awards were awarded. Ian McDonald won the best novel award for The Dervish House, while Aliette de Bodard won the best short story award. Paul Kincaid won the award in the non-fiction category.

The Dervish House was also nominated for the Arthur C. Clarke award, but lost out to Zoo City by Lauren Beukes. I didn’t get around to reading Zoo City yet, but the reviews have been excellent. Besides, it’s always great to see an award of international importance go to a writer who is not from the US or UK. And now the Clarke Award has been won by South African writer and the BSFA award by a French writer. Our genre is getting a lot more international and that alone is reason to celebrate.

As if winning the Clarke Award wasn’t enough, Lauren Beukes also has a post about writing the Other at the World SF blog.

At the Guardian site, literary translator Helen Stevenson talks about the challenges of translating the works of Congolese writer Alain Mabanckou into English.

There is an interesting discussion about experimental SF and fantasy going on at Jeff Vandermeer’s blog.

At Tribal Writer Justine Musk discusses “the creative gap” and how to get through it.

And now for something funny: In the Guardian a mother recounts how a discussion with her nine-year-old daughter about tadpoles evolved into a discussion about human reproduction. Hilarious and so true.

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Doctor Who and its problematic message to girls

Posted on April 27, 2011 by Cora

As you may know, I used to be a Doctor Who fan. I got into the original series when a friend hooked me up with some videos. Naturally, I was excited when the new series started back in 2005. I enjoyed the first season with some reservations and the second and the third, the Christmas specials and the spin-offs. But my enthusiasm dimmed gradually, until the day I realized that the Doctor presented on screen was no longer the character who had once ignited my love for the show. Even worse, I no longer even liked this Doctor character. So I stopped watching after the 2007 Christmas special (the one with Kylie Minogue). I still show the early seasons of the new series and the Sarah Jane Adventures spin-off to my students on occasion, but I am no longer a regular watcher.

Nonetheless, I still read recaps and reviews of the later seasons, probably hoping against hope that the show will return to what once attracted me to it. I also skimmed the reviews of the latest season, which debuted on Easter Saturday. Here is a review from the Guardian, another review, also from the Guardian and here is the review from Tor.com. The reviews obviously contain spoilers. As I mentioned yesterday, those reviews don’t exactly make me revise my opinion of Doctor Who.

This morning, I discussed the developments in the new Doctor Who season with a friend who is also a sometime fan and we both agreed that the reviews not only sound awful, but that one particular development is hugely problematic.

Spoilers for season 6 and for Doctor Who in general under the cut, so beware if you haven’t seen the season premiere yet and want to watch. Continue reading →

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More awards geekery, writing and indie publishing links

Posted on April 27, 2011 by Cora

It’s definitely awards season, for the Bafta TV Awards nominations for the best British TV programs have been announced as well. The full list of nominees is here.

I’m pleased to see my current favourite TV show, Misfits, getting a nomination as best drama series as well as two well deserved acting nominations for Robert Sheehan (Nathan) and Lauren Socha (Kelly). Though I’d argue that Iwan Rheon, who plays Simon, would have been as deserving of a nomination. Besides, Robert Sheehan benefits from all the hilarious dialogue Nathan gets to say (though Robert Sheehan does a wonderful job of showing glimpses of Nathan’s vulnerability underneath the attitude, rude jokes and obnoxious behaviour), while Iwan Rheon has to act solely with his face and eyes much of the time, since Simon doesn’t talk very much. Besides, Simon undergoes the biggest development over the course of the series, from painfully shy and geeky kid to basically Batman. But then, what is remarkable about Misfits is that all five leads (and many of the guest stars, too) are incredibly actors. I should really do a post about the many ways in which Misfits is wonderful some time.

The BBC’s contemporary set Sherlock series also gets a nomination as best drama series as well as for both lead actors. Again, a very well deserved nomination, because I enjoyed Sherlock a whole lot. Matt Smith is nominated for an acting award for Doctor Who, apparently the first Doctor Who star ever to be nominated for an acting Bafta. I haven’t seen more than a few clips of his performance as the Doctor, so I can’t really comment.

Downton Abbey, the drama about Edwardian aristocrats which everybody but me seems to adore (I described my issues with Downton Abbey here and here) was unsurprisingly also nominated as best drama series as well as for an acting award for Brendan Coyle (whom I have liked in other things). The final nominee in the best drama series category is Being Human, which I find somewhat surprising, because the third series started out underwhelming and gradually descended into complete and utter crap. I can’t really comment on the one-off dramas and mini-series, because I have seen hardly any of them (except Mad Dogs and that was solely because of all the acting talent assembled there).

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On to the writing links:

Chuck Wendig has two great writing posts: 25 things every writer should know and stupid writer tricks. Found via Lilith Saintcrow.

Tiffany Reisz has some tips for writing good sex scenes at Janice Hardy’s blog.

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I also have a couple of indie publishing links:

Steve Hockensmith, who wrote two of those Jane Austen mash-ups and a bunch of westerns and historical mysteries, offers some not entirely serious advice on indie publishing.

Writer and indie publisher J. Steven York writes a somewhat more serious response to Steve Hockensmith.

Dean Wesley Smith offers some calculations regarding sales and profits for indie authors. Very interesting reading.

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Easter Linkdump

Posted on April 26, 2011 by Cora

The longer post I have been working on still isn’t finished, so here is an Easter linkdump:

Kate Griffin on why she writes fantasy. Found via Josh Vogt.

At Grasping for the Wind, Keith Brooke of Infinity Plus wonders what the rise of e-books and indie publishing means for the publishing industry in general.

Abigail Nussbaum offers her commentary on the 2011 Hugo nominations.

Abigail Nussbaum is one of those critics with whom I usually vehemently disagree on everything. Which is why I’m surprised that I actually agree with her take on the Hugo nominations for once, because some names and books also left me scratching my head (though at least two of the puzzlers can be explained by geographic factors). I also thought that I was the only person who found the best graphic work category underwhelming, but then I stopped reading comics five years ago and am no longer in the loop, so there might really be nothing better out there these days.

Though I am actually a bit more optimistic than Abigail Nussbaum regarding the state of genre television, but that’s no surprise considering our tastes are diametrically opposed. Though I still agree that something beside Doctor Who should be nominated once in a while. What is more, according to the reviews I’ve seen the latest season of Doctor Who sounds awful. And really, is there no other storyline for women in the Doctor Who universe except to get married and get pregnant? The show was more progressive in the 1960s, for heaven’s sake.

My take on this year’s Hugo nominations is here in case anyone cares.

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2011 Hugo Nominations

Posted on April 25, 2011 by Cora

The Hugo Award nominations for 2011 have been announced.

As with this year’s Nebula Awards, we have a nicely diverse slate of nominees in the fiction categories. There are women nominated in all fiction categories and for the Campbell Award, the novel category even has four female and only one male nominee. Compared to the almost entirely male shortlist of a few years ago, this is a big improvement. I also see several writers of colour nominated and at least two nominees who are not British or American in the fiction categories. It’s still not perfect, but it is a marked improvement over a few years ago.

The “best related work” category looks a little underwhelming, but maybe it was not a good year for related works. The two “best dramatic presentation” categories are disappointing as well. I mean, How To Train Your Dragon and Toy Story 3? Honestly? I know that Americans are all agog about Toy Story 3, probably because they suddenly realize what happened to their favourite toys when they went away to college, but the appeal completely eludes me and coincidentally also most other Germans I know.

As for the short form dramatic presentation, I know that a lot of people love Doctor Who – I used to be one of them. But there is speculative television beyond Doctor Who and much of it is pretty good. What about Supernatural, Misfits, True Blood, Ashes to Ashes, The Vampire Diaries, Being Human (okay, season 3 sucked, but season 2 was still largely good), Outcasts, Lost (just because I don’t like it doesn’t mean that nobody else does) and all of those SciFi/SyFy Channel series? Ashes to Ashes and Misfits alone definitely blow Doctor Who out of the water. Besides, even Doctor Who fans report being underwhelmed A Christmas Carol. Meanwhile, the nomination for The Lost Thing is pretty self-evident, it did win an Oscar after all. As for Fuck Me, Ray Bradbury, I recall seeing a link to the video posted some time ago. At any rate, it’s good to see such a comparatively small project nominated alongside the juggernaut Doctor Who and an Oscar winning short film.

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